The monthly newsletter of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Mt. Vernon June/July 2016

St. John’s

“Meet Me on the Mountain”

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I have to come clean and admit that among all of the church hymns, praise worship songs, and contemporary Christian music lyrics floating around in my head, there are still a few rock and roll tunes bouncing around in my grey matter. I have been humming the tune to REO Speedwagon’s 1979 hit, Meet Me On The Mountain. I was thinking back over all of the Vacation Bible School themes we have done in the past. We have had angels in the parish. We have put on the armor of God and turned the parish hall into a Bible boot camp for VBS. We have celebrated Christmas in July. We have done a desert-related VBS. We have taught a VBS based on water-related Bible Stories. What we have not yet done is base a VBS on stories about God meeting people on a mountain. Mountains and other “high places” have from ages past been locations that people go to get closer to God or feel closer to God. I am sure some of that feeling is based on the fact that when we are high above our normal comfort level, we feel like we are reaching to the heavens. The photo above was taken on one of my walks along the Appalachian Trail in Virginia. Even though I am looking up, or across at Shark Top Mountain and Flat Top Mountain, there were other times along the Trail that I was on the highest point around looking down onto mountain ridges. I felt at peace up there and close to God in the forested surroundings. It was holy ground and a place of prayer for me. The Christian Education Committee and I will soon be planning for this year’s VBS, probably to take place in July. There are plenty of mountain top Bible stories to choose from depending on how many stories we want to cover. I have made a short list to get us started. In the Book of Exodus, after Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt, God directs Moses to bring the people to God’s holy mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. In the Book of First Kings, Elijah is being chased by the army of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. God leads him high up a mountain and reveals himself to Elijah in a special way. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a mountain and Jesus is transfigured. After Jesus’ Resurrection, there are different mountain top stories in Matthew and Luke. In Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples to meet him on a mountain in Galilee. In Luke, Jesus takes the disciples out to a mountain (the Mount of Olives) where he ascends into heaven. Jesus also does much of his teaching of large crowds from a mountain, and he also goes up on a mountain to a “deserted place” to pray and reconnect with the Father. Where do you go to connect with God? For me, mountains are nice, but there aren’t many mountains around Mt. Vernon. I connect with God along a river or pond while fishing, or in the woods. Maybe for you it is not a particular place, but you feel connected to God in an activity, like gardening, or cooking, or walking or any other enjoyable hobby. Running is a form of prayer when I am healthy enough, or fit enough, to do it. Maybe it is a special place in your house? Jesus said, “whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” The women’s Bible study group has watched the 2015 movie, War Room, and are follow-ing a study guide based on that movie to improve their spiritual life. The movie is about a woman who established a closet in her house as a sacred space to pray, her spiritual war room. I am hoping that through this summer’s VBS we can teach the kids that God meets his children on mountains, but that mountain top connections with God in prayer can happen in any place at any time. Finally, as weird as it seems, I have also been humming the Christmas Carol, Go Tell it on the Mountain. Your Brother in Christ, Allen+

Serving Christ In The Community For Over 160 Years

A member of The Southwest Deanery of The Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis; The

Episcopal Church in the United States; and the Worldwide Anglican Communion

The Rt. Rev. Catherine M. Waynick, Bishop The Rev. Allen D. Rutherford, Rector Mr. Bruce Dingman, Senior Warden Mr. Barry Cox, Junior Warden Mrs. Alex Jeffries, Vestry Clerk Ms. Susan Harrison, Treasurer

Mission Statement The mission of the people of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Mt. Vernon, Indiana is to: Proclaim the love of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ through prayer, study, and action.

Vision Statement With God’s help, we commit ourselves to: Recognize God as the author of all creation

Be a place of welcome and refuge for ourselves and others

Offer weekly worship and Eucharist

Stay grounded in God’s Word through Christian education

Pray for our needs and those of others

Lend a helping hand to those in any kind of need or trouble,

and finally to

Maintain thankful hearts for God’s many blessings

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Mt. Vernon, Indiana

Church Address: 602 Mulberry Street P.O. Box 503 Mt. Vernon, Indiana 47620 (812) 838-5445 Fax #: (812) 838-4881 mtvstjohns@sbcglobal.net Summer Church Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8 am — Noon Mrs. Robin Price, Secretary For pastoral emergencies, please call: The Rev. Allen D. Rutherford, Rector Home: 812-838-4406 Cell Phone: 812-430-2443 E-mail: rutherford317@sbcglobal.net

SUMMER SCHEDULE Sunday Morning Service

10:00a.m. Holy Eucharist RITE II

Coffee & Refreshments follows the Eucharist in the Parish Hall

Sunday Morning Nursery Assistance Available at 9:45 a.m.

Weekday Schedule

Women’s Bible Study, Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. Morning Prayer

Morning Prayer, Tuesday-Friday, 8:30a.m. May be sporadic during the summer

Look us up on the web at www.mvstjohns.org Also become our friend on Facebook: mtvstjohns@yahoo.com

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Leadership

Treasurer’s Notes Well, here we are again. The kids are out of school! It seems that it was just a short time ago we were saying “I can't believe school has started back!?” I have frequently told people a story about my Grandmother. She was 97 at the time of this particular conversation. I mentioned to her how fast time seemed to be passing. She calmly replied “you haven’t seen nothing yet!” Yep, she was exactly right. I hadn't. As we move deeper into our summer season, we will be having to look at those green vestments week after week. We encourage St. John’s pledge members to maintain their giving. The bills to keep the church functioning and our outreach giving don't stop while the members go on vacations. At the end of June we will be sending out the 2nd quarter giving statements so all our giving members will be able to assess where they are in their donation schedules. Church Windows has done some major updating in the donation module of its software and we’re hoping the statements this time will be more user-friendly. If you do have any questions or concerns PLEASE just ask me. Our long term investments portfolio increased in market value as of the end of April. This represents the “on-paper“ dollar value of our holdings. The annual estimated income was down slightly April over March but still within the margin required for our budget. Many investors are currently struggling to maintain adequate yields in their holdings and St. John’s is no exception. One task the Vestry asked of the finance committee this month was to investigate possible options for an improved return on $22,500 which is currently in the Columbarium Fund. When the Columbarium was planned and then actually constructed we set money aside, to keep it separated from St. John’s operating budget, to only be used as needed for the Columbarium itself. At this time, no payments are due to the Columbarium and we currently have no expenses. The Vestry directed $2,500.00 stay in cash and the remainder be invested. As I remind the Vestry each month when I give them St. John’s financial report, this church family is so incredibly blessed. Churches all around us are struggling. We are easily maintaining the more than $30,000 of outreach obligations we pledged during 2016. Don't EVER let yourselves forget who is ACTUALLY responsible for those blessing! Take time to thank HIM every day. We at St. John’s do NOT just “talk the talk” of Jesus. We also “walk the walk” in the path of Christ as He directed us. As you bless others, so then shall you be blessed. We never cling to our blessings in desperation, but in Faith we are constantly sowing the seeds of our gifts out into the community and the world. We collected over $300 for the “Lunches & Lessons” program during ONE service; and a healthy donation to the Bishop’s Discretionary Fund! AMAZING!! St. John’s family is AMAZING!! ...with God’s help. May it always be so. Thank you all, each and every one of you. Susan Harrison, treasurer

Junior Warden’s Report Summer has finally arrived! Let’s hope it lasts longer than three months! We are currently working on these projects;

Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance – We continue to work on this project and are in the process of developing quotes for the completion this concept. However, the first contractor that the architect selected has not been responsive. We will need to do some exploratory work on the northeast wall of the church to determine what might need to be done to provide an entrance there. Believe the correct approach will be to use TMI to do this exploratory evaluation, when they repair the woodwork the north side of the building. Adam Green is our architect and he is also exploring other concepts.

Concrete Steps at front of church – Possible Replacement, if we chose not to comply with ADA.

Concrete Steps coming out of sacristy door – Possible replacement, if we chose not to comply with ADA.

Lighting – Sounds like the correct approach is to evaluate the apropos light fixtures. We are getting pictures from our sister parish in Washington, IN to determine if their solution may lend us some thoughts to accomplish this improvement. Brian Schmett with Amerlight and Dana Taylor are assisting with this project.

Roof Washing – Well, they came out and washed the north roof of the church and after communicating that their product was plant-friendly, they damaged some of our plants on the north side of the church. Looks like my tithe will be investing in new plants! They did not complete the entire project, so we will be looking for an alternate to cleaning.

Roof Repairs – A new roof has been installed above the altar area!

North Wall – TMI has begun to work on repair to the holes in the church wall on the north side of the building. We have lost some trim work on the exterior as a result of the flooding in the prayer garden. They are working on this as well.

South Garden Work – We will be letting the contract to replace the garden plants on the south side of the facility. Knock-out roses, crape myrtles and green velvet boxwoods!

If there are items you notice should be addressed please call at your convenience and we will do our best. 812-483-4319.

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Education and Formation

A VBS Planning

Meeting is

Scheduled for

Sunday,

June 5th

(after morning service)

OUR NEW ACOLYTE

& CANDLESNUFFERS

We baptize our children when they are infants and in the blink of an eye they are old enough to be acolytes and candlesnuffers. Catie Claire Bell has received acolyte training from Father Allen. She will shadow older acolytes for a couple weeks then go solo. In the training session, CCB had a little difficulty processing our very top-heavy brass cross. Father Allen solved the problem by refashioning an Episcopal flag pole into a processional cross. Vincent Bell and David Jeffries are our two new candlesnuffers. Congratulations to all of them for stepping up to serve Christ in his Church. We have a couple other children who will be trained and serve when they feel ready to serve.

We send off our young children to summer church camp and in the blink of an eye they are old enough to become camp counselors. Congratulations to Austin Colson and Patrick Gerton for volunteering their summer to be camp counselors at Waycross this year. We are proud of you both for this wonderful ministry. Thank You both for paying it forward to other youth of our diocese and beyond.

Our Camp

Counselors

The Graduates Congratulations To:

Patrick Gerton— for his graduation from Mt. Vernon High School.

Amy Steele— for graduation from Indiana University with her Bachelor’s Degree.

Diane Hancock— Who will be completing her Masters Degree to become a Nurse Practitioner through U.S.I.

Congratulations to all our church family mem-bers who are celebrating a graduation with a loved one. Also, congratulations to our children of all ages growing a little older and moving up a level in school next fall.

“There’s a Sweet, Sweet Spirit in this place,

and I know that it’s the Spirit of the Lord”

For his children’s sermon

on Pentecost Sunday,

Father Allen led the

children around the inside

of the church and taught

them how the Holy Spirit

played an active role in

all of the stories depicted

in our stained glass

windows.

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Recognition Sunday

Outreach Tithe Recipients June

River Bend Food Pantry, $750.

Seminary Support-Sewanee, $375.

Family Matters, $500.

Willow Tree, $250.

July

Evansville Honor Flight, $800.

Pound Puppies, $250.

Easter Seals, Posey Rehabilitation, $250.

Cape Head Start $250.

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Reaching Out To Others

God Doesn’t Take a Summer Vacation Summer Pledges and Statements

“Like a Good Shepherd, Jesus is there!” (Sung to the State Farm Insurance jingle.)

Wherever you might go on summer vacation, the Lord is with you. For those of you that made an annual pledge, please don’t forgot to keep “on track” through the summer months. If you will miss church on Sunday because of being out of town; you can mail or drop your check by the church. Giving statements will be sent out for the second quarter at the beginning of July. Watch for these in the mail. If you have any questions, please call Robin or stop by the church office.

Outreach

“Thank You”s Thank you to everyone who contributed to the

special offering collected on May 22nd for the

Lunches and Lessons program for St. Andre

School in Mithon Haiti. This was in honor of

Bishop Cate’s last visit to St. John’s. The school

and its programs are important to the bishop and

our diocese. Also, thank you to those who gave an

offering for the Bishop’s Discretionary Fund.

Thank you to everyone who contributed coins in

thanksgiving to our United Thank Offering Spring

Ingathering. The total amount collected was

$215.09! Lydia Rutherford is our parish UTO

coordinator.

Another round of applause to everyone who

helped out with the Relay For Life fundraiser in

late April. We were able to profit $2,018.25 to go

towards Cancer research, those battling cancer,

and on-going survivor’s support.

June FOOD

PANTRY

Hamburger Helper

July FOOD

PANTRY

Breakfast Items

The Food Pantry needs Hamburger

Helper or breakfast items during

the summer months.

Place them in the round bin in the

Parish Hall.

Thank You to the Choir of St. John’s

for another great year of Musical

accompaniment!

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Church & Community

We hosted Bishop Cate for her last visit

with us at St. John’s before her retirement

next April. Thank You to Cate for the

fond memories together over the years.

After our two big office floods in 2012 and 2013, we reworked the drainage system in the prayer garden. It has worked great until two storms rolled through in mid-May. The first storm with high winds dropped a large quan-tity of tree debris in the garden. The second storm, with heavy rain pushed the debris onto the drainage system and caused a little water to back up into the choir robe closet. A quick vacuuming and fans dried it out quickly. Our Junior Warden and Vestry are looking into the situation.

Nature’s struggles to bring forth new life. At least two sets of birds built nests around the church this spring. A pair of robins built a nest in the wreath hanging on the north side, and managed to success-fully hatch two chicks. A pair of turtledoves built a nest inside the end of the eave troth, but eventually were flooded out by the deluge of heavy storms. Birds don’t give up easily. The doves will find a better nesting place. Alice Morris turned 100 on Friday, May 27th.

She celebrated her Centennial birthday at a golf outing at the Country Club on the 27th, and party with her family on the 28th. St. John’s offered prayers for her and had a reception on the 29th to mark the occasion.

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Church & Community

The Thirty-First (XXXI) Olympic Games of the modern era are scheduled to take place this August in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Many of us will be glued to our TV sets to watch our U.S. athletes compete in every sport and root for them to win a medal. We will watch all of the touching back stories of underdog athletes from other countries and cheer them on as well. The Olympic motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius, which is Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger. What if Olympic events were based on Episcopal worship on a Sunday morning. What would competitions be and what medals could be awarded? Let’s have a look!

Kneeling and getting back up—the gold would go to the person who can kneel the longest for Prayers of the People and get back up the fastest.

Deepest bow at the name of Jesus without straining a back muscle. “How LOW can you go?”

Book juggling—An agility and timed event. How long can you juggle the Prayer Book, Hymnal, and bulletin without dropping one?

Marathon sermon & service—An endurance challenge to see how long you can stay awake during a long service. No cheating by sleeping with your eyes open or caffeine doping!

Longest high note—How long can you hold a high note in a church hymn?

Fastest parishioner to the door— after the service.

Most snacks consumed— during coffee hour.

The Long

GREEN Season

One of the two major factors in determining the Church calendar year is what Sunday of the secular year that EASTER falls. Easter Day is the first Sunday after the first full moon, after the Spring Equinox. The earliest it can be is March 22nd and the latest it can be is April 25th. When Easter Sunday is late in April, we have a long season of Epiphany and what seems like a short season after Pentecost. Pentecost Sunday and Trinity Sunday are in the middle of June. When Easter is early in the latter half of March, we have a short season of Epiphany and what seems like a LONG season after Pentecost. With Easter Sunday falling on March 27th this year, we are preparing ourselves for a LONG season after Pentecost. Or, what some people call “The Long GREEN Season.”

There are those who dread the thought of endless Sundays of seeing green on the altar and pulpit. It was even briefly suggested that we consider purchasing a second, “different” set of green tapestries and vestments. That would be very pricey. We try to change things up a little with the vestments and the liturgy during these long Pentecost seasons. Multiple green vestments are available to wear. Fr. Allen has a new Father’s Day stole to wear on June 19th. We can pray Eucharistic Prayer D, which we have tried in past summers.

The season after Pentecost is also referred to as “Ordinary Time”, not because it is unimportant or ordinary. The weeks are numbered, or ordered, and just reminds us that there is a structure and order to the life of our church year.

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Church and Community

2016 St. John’s Pool Party We are planning to return to the

Western Hills Country Club in

August for our annual pool party. A sign up sheet and more details will follow in

early July.

Mark your calendars: River Days Festival

September 9th—11th St. John’s Sweet Shop continues to be a great success and

we will be repeating it again this year. We will be selling

cotton candy, fudge, Episcopade, and (weather permitting)

hot chocolate. We are planning on having our booth open

on Sunday this year. A planning meeting will be held in early

August to prepare for this year’s special River Day’s event.

2015 PHOTOS WANTED

The committee that oversaw last year’s 160th anniversary celebration is discussing the possibility of creating a commemorative book or even a DVD presentation. Beth Dingman put together a binder of information from last year, including flyers, newspaper clippings, and some photos. We want to expand upon that effort. We want photos of any of last year’s events that HAVE NOT seen the light of day or been given to the church? If you know of any photos on your smartphone or posted on Facebook, or other places, please send them to the church.

Slate of Candidates

to be announced

in July The Search Committee stopped receiving applications and portfolios for our next bishop back on February 15th. Since then, they have been diligently and PRIVATELY performing background checks and getting to know the applicants. A slate of three to five candidates is scheduled to be released in July. Then, Father Allen and our two delegates, Beth Dingman and Gail Rob will start their own research and discernment of who they will vote for during the late October bishop election.

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Events & Celebrations

June Events: 04 — Mt. Vernon Relay For Life Event,

St. John’s does not have a booth

05 — Feast of St. John’s Sunday

06 — St. John’s, River Bend Food Pantry day

16 — Vestry Meeting, 6:00 p.m.

19 — Father’s Day 20 — St. John’s, River Bend Food Pantry day

June Birthdays: 06 — Stephanie (Oyler) Toon

10 — Bruce Dingman

12 — Earl Harlow

15 — Virginia Jeffries

16 — Austin Colson

17 — Emily Gagnon

27 — David Oyler

28 — Yvonne Boyer

30 — Rosemary Harlow

June Anniversaries: 06 — Tim & Kim Steele

06 — Ron & Diane Stover

08 — Jeff & Susie Colson

14 — Bruce & Elizabeth Dingman

21 — Earl & Rosemary Harlow

24 — David & Lisa Oyler

25 — Allen & Lydia Rutherford

July Birthdays: 01 — Ryan Akins

02 — Steve Burris

04 — Doris Gerton

09 — Diane Hancock

13 — Brian Jeffries

17 — Larry Horton

18 — Dana Taylor

21 —Vincent Bell

25 — Lisa Oyler

25 — John Seyffarth

28 — Marti Birkhead

July Anniversaries: 29 — John & Jill Gerton

Did we list it wrong?;

Is your date missing?;

let us know.

July Events:

04 — Independence Day, Church office closed 18 — St. John’s, River Bend Food Pantry day TBD — VBS—”Meet Me On The Mountain”

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Connecting Kids To God

Mares eat oats,

and does eat oats,

and little lambs

eat ivy

St. John’s Episcopal Church P.O. Box 503 602 Mulberry Street Mt. Vernon, IN 47620

“SUMMER’S HERE, I’m for that, I got my rubber sandals,

got my straw hat. Got my cold drink;

man I’m glad that it’s here!

It’s my favorite time

of the year, and

I’m glad that it’s here.

YEAH!” James Taylor: Dad Loves His Work: 1981

Remember that Sunday church service is at 10:00 A.M. all summer long.